NASA Marks Progress on Hardware for Orion’s Second Flight with Space Launch System Rocket

Machining for NASA’s Orion spacecraft, scheduled to fly on the second integrated flight with agency’s Space Launch System rocket, is well underway at Ingersoll Machine Tools in Rockford, Illinois. The new deep space spacecraft will take humans farther into the solar system than we have ever traveled before.

Seen here, the barrel of Orion’s crew module, which arrived at the facility weighing about 12,000 pounds, will be reduced to approximately 880 pounds before it is shipped to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Four of the crew module’s parts are being machined at Ingersoll before they ship for welding and assembly this summer. The crew module is the part of the spacecraft where astronauts will live, work, exercise and eat during their missions beyond the moon.